The Ones
by cairodragon
Summary: wolves looking for a safe place to live it's more interesting than it sounds...trust the author


Jane Di Nicola Mr. Gagnon H English Short Story 10-16-02  
  
  
  
  
  
The year is 2289 A.D. Ten years before, the humans finally succeeded in removing all life from planet Earth. They totally destroyed everything.except for the wolves. The wolves knew that day would come, so they started burrowing deep into the Earth's crust a couple of decades before. The human species didn't know that the wolves were doing this. They were too occupied with their green paper, which they called "money".  
  
About two years before the annihilation, the US had gotten into a diminutive argument with Great Britain. The US was now the dominant continent and owned all six continents, except for that little part of Europe, called England. The Brits knew that the United States only wanted more money and more power, and didn't care for the well being of all the other parts of its empire, so in turn, they declined the offer of alliance.  
  
  
  
One year after Britain's refusal, the US was depleted of fighter's and supplies. They requested alliance once more, but failed. In a fit of rage, lunacy and fatigue of fighting, the US government issued a released of the very large atomic bomb. It was the only one and it took a decade to get that bomb so huge.  
  
  
  
Since then, the surviving wolves renamed themselves "The Ones". Over the years, they've developed a highly organized pack. They travel almost non-stop each and every day looking for the "Untouched Land of the West". Many a wolf has died searching for this land, and because of this, only one pack survived now, Tarksha's. His was a pack of about three thousand wolves. They were close to their destination; all of them could sense it.  
  
  
  
"I think it's a myth."  
  
"And I know it somewhere out there, my grandma has even told me so, Shankslah."  
  
"Well, Lamnaktah, that just shows how much you know.". They have been friends since they first were brought into this world. They were both only six months old when the bomb struck. Shankslah was unusually large for a female wolf. She had been exposed to the radiation and was the only one to survive out of her entire family. Her closest friend, Lamnaktah had his entire family with him, not his parents though. They had come to the same end Shankslah's family had. All those innocent wolves had lost their lives only because they didn't get to the caves in time. Lamnaktah's grandmother and aunt had raised his family, including Shankslah. Both of them were inseparable, they were such good friends. From that day forward, they knew what loss, fear, and pain felt like, as did all the other wolves.  
  
  
  
"The legend says to travel west. Guess what we're doing, Shankslah."  
  
"Fine. I'll shut up. Apparently you know what you're babbling about."  
  
  
  
As the two friends were arguing between themselves, an uneasy feeling crept into their leader.  
  
"We'll stop here for the night!", boomed Tarksha. "It's not safe to go on until daybreak!"  
  
Grateful, but worried, all three thousand wolves stopped in their tracks and lay down to sleep, oblivious to what was lurking in the dark, beyond the toothpick trees. waiting for the right moment to strike.  
  
  
  
Shankslah saw a horrific thing that night. A two-footed, upright creature was creeping about the soundly sleeping pack. She watched it look around, pause, then keep going. It was doing this for a while until it stopped, looked down, raised a rod with a sharp point at the end, and was about to pierce.her stepmother!!!  
  
"NO! DON'T DO IT!!!" she screamed as loud as she could. The upright monster stared at her as if in amazement, fear, and stunned all at the same time, then it bolted as fast as it could, in fear, she could sense it, into the woods from whence it came. Shankslah waited until that horrendous thing was fully immersed in the blackness of the forest. She got up and ran full speed to the closest thing she had to a family, dodging all the waking wolves. "Are you alright mother?"  
  
"Yes. What was that?" asked Rashknaf.  
  
Shankslah was about to reply to the question not knowing what the answer was, when Tarksha spoke before she did,  
  
"It was a human." he said solemnly.  
  
"I thought that they died in their explosion?" shrieked the puzzled Shankslah.  
  
"I've heard that a few did survive. They copied our technique. I thought they would've been a few more suns away, we were lucky you were awake, Shankslah, or else its pack will follow us until they kill us all.", replied Tarksha, slightly annoyed by the shriek.  
  
"What's all the shrieking about?" droned the half-asleep Lamnaktah. Shankslah was about to answer, but Rashknaf cut her off.  
  
"A surviving human tried to kill me and we all know how hysterical our Shankslah can get in these types of situations." She said with a little smirk. "Now you kids go off and do something or get more sleep or something, Tarksha and I need to talk over how we can prevent this from happening again.  
  
As soon as they began to talk, Lamnaktah whispered in Shankslah's ear, " Now do you believe the legend?"  
  
  
  
"What do you think? I almost lost my mom," and then she said a little quieter, "again."  
  
  
  
When Tarksha and Rashknaf were done consulting a few other members of the pack, it was time to settle down again. Many did not want to, but Tarksha reassured them that it will be all right. The night seemed to go on forever, but finally the sun came up. The whole pack was off again, towards the west and, hopefully, salvation. Their next encounter with the unexpected happened only a few hours into the new day's journey. Once again the two friends were disagreeing about little stuff. They were at the head of the pack as a special treat for saving a life the night before (only Shankslah was supposed to be up front, but she begged and pleaded and finally got her way). Lamnaktah was about to give his rebuttal on the subject at hand; when suddenly Shankslah froze in the position she was in and jerked her head up. He looked up to see what she was dumbfounded with and he nearly fell over. There in front of them stood the largest, most magnificent human remnants of an architectural structure that any of the wolves ever saw. It had a big dome on the top that looked as if it were shined a few hours ago. There were arches and statues and even the glass was still in the panes. After ten excruciating years of never ending walking, a seemingly never ending life (the radiation somehow altered the aging effect on the wolves), and an uncountable number of perils and life- threatening situations, the wolves had succeeded in finding "The Untouched Land".  
  
  
  
Lamnaktah was the first to bolt strait for the sanctuary, he was immediately followed by Shankslah. The rest of the pack took a second to process their joy; it had been a long time since they had felt this feeling. Eventually, they dug up this feeling back from the grave and followed the lead of the two best friends. They were finally home; they had found their land. Of course none of them had even the slightest inkling that it was the two-legger's god that had saved them. Ever since that encounter the night before, the human had be praying and hoping "The Ones" would make it safely home. 


End file.
